Tag Archives: comida mejicana

My wife’s job is moving to Kansas, 25 miles away. So we are moving to be only 2 miles from her work, rather than 25. We tried to find a place in Missouri without many steps and on the first floor since we have her mum with and she uses a walker. Hello Overland Park/Leawood!

I will at least be able to walk to the grocery store. In this area, there are two Whole Paychecks within 3 miles of each other. The closest one caters to rich hippies (more schnozz jewelery and lurid tattoos); they other is a haven for soccer moms who seem to be mainly tall Skandahoovian women. There is also a Dean & DeLuca, which is even more insanely expensive than Whole Paycheck. Hen House, a local chain, is more reasonable, and even has a whole kosher butcher shop and a wider selection of fresh sea food than the others I have mentioned.

There are also S. Asian greengrocers and halal butcher shops in the area. Olathe or KCKS is where I shall go to get my ingredients for comida mejicana.

A recent painting of mine.

“Who would believe they would freak out in Kansas, Suzy Creamcheese…” Frank Zappa.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I picked up a half dozen tamales for our lunch at Carniceria Camecuaro. I was expecting them to be in hojas de maiz (corn husks), but they were wrapped in banana leaves. These turned out to be estilo salvadoreño and were full of chicken & vegetables. Sort of like a chicken pot pie, but better.

This is a block south of Independence, behind GRINGO LOCO #2

Here’s a series of photos of one of these tamales.

Just opened

Nearly done…

Muy sabroso.

The vegetables included corn, potato, carrots, & poblano chile. The banana leaf wrapper adds a different flavor to the tamale; it’s more earthy than the regular hoja de maiz wrapper.

This one has wonderful adobado and al pastor tacos. The fish tacos are great, too. And they have carne machacada! I still haven’t had their pozole or menudo which are said to be some of the best in Kansas City.

Estilo Nayarit

They make their tortillas by hand and the people there are most pleasant. We like the signage.

Boy howdy! I’ve been seeing how easy it is to procure tamale-making materials and hardware here in Kansas City. The tiendas and carnicerias in the barrio where I live have several models of tamale steamers for sale. Here’s the bucket version, which probably works well on a cajun Cooker.

Bucket type tamale steamer

Of course, there are several options for masa, from the Maseca & Masa Harina commercial brands and the stores sell five-pound plastic bags of fresh tamale masa.

prepared masa

And the hojas de maiz are readily available nearly everywhere. I was at the big Asian supermarket downtown a few days before Christmas and Latinas were buying scads of packaged frozen banana leaves “para tamales de Navidad”. Just down the aisle I found a display of baluts (a Filipino bar snack of unborn duck eggs) right next to the durians. Nummers.

~3/4 lb pork bones from Belmont (or other custom butcher). (the pork neck bones you get at the regular store are often full of bone chips, which can be a PITA)
1 small onion un-peeled, cut in quarters
6 smashed cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
some salt

simmer for ~3 hours, making 1 1/2 quarts of stock. Strain. Take meat off bones and reserve.